Snapdeal reports 50 per cent growth in General Merchandise category

The company said that its annual sales trends for the general merchandise (GM) category, for January 2016-2017 indicated that category recorded 50 per cent overall increase, with the maximum contribution coming from the home and kitchen businesses.

The company said that its research indicated that customers opted more for products that are not just energy efficient, but also that support a healthier lifestyle.

In the metro cities for instance, the purchase of LEDs grew by 50 per cent noted Snapdeal.

Likewise, the sale of Air Fryers, which allow one to fry food without oil, showed a 100 per cent spike over the last one year.

Juicers/Mixers/Grinders showed 40 per cent growth in sales, the company said.  

However, according to Snapdeal, the overall highest contribution to the kitchen category came from stove tops, with the sale of variants across price range registering a 200 per cent increase.

Sale trends as studied by Snapdeal suggest that customers choices/preferences of shopping from online e-commerce are moving to a wider set of categories.

Categories like religion and spirituality, plants and gardening, pet supplies, painting and other home decor products grew by more than doubled in the past one year.

Most of the growth in these categories were from Tier II & III regions, where Snapdeal is giving consumers a much wider array of choices than the retail stores in their region can provide, the company claimed.

Besides kitchen, furniture sales zoomed to 80 per cent.

Other high selling products included home décor items such as bed-sheets and wall decorations, water purifiers, microwaves, power tools kids clothing and toys, men and women’s clothing and footwear.

Vishal Chadha, Senior Vice President (Business) said, “Our expanding general merchandise assortment ensures that we are able to provide for our consumers’ every need in this category. Coupled with the fastest delivery in the industry and a price range for every pocket, we are confident that this upwards trend will continue. Growth in this category is also strategic to our business --  it ensures customer stickiness and more repeat purchases.”

In February 2010, Kunal Bahl along with Rohit Bansal, started Snapdeal. Snapdeal has partnered with several global marquee investors and individuals such as SoftBank, BlackRock, Temasek, Foxconn, Alibaba, eBay Inc., Premji Invest, Intel Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Ratan Tata, among others.